Israelis exchange fire with Hezbollah

Israel's proxy war with Iran moved up a notch on Feb. 3 when Israeli jets and artillery bombed Hezbollah targets near the disputed Shebaa Farms area on the border of south Lebanon. The bombing was in retaliation for a barrage of rocket attacks on an Israeli military position launched by the Lebanese militia group. The rocket attack came two days after a 17-year-old shepherd from Shebaa, Ibrahim Rehayel, was shot dead by Israeli troops as he herded goats at Bastara Farms, bordering the disputed Shebaa area, which has been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967. An Israeli military spokeswoman said that one Israeli soldier had been slightly wounded in the Hezbollah attack. There were no details of Lebanese casualties. Ahmad Daher, the official state doctor for south Lebanon, confirmed that Rehayel had been shot four times with a high-velocity rifle from a range of between 20 and 50 yards. United Nations peacekeepers, who have continued to monitor the border since the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000, said Israeli troops had killed the young shepherd inside Lebanon. Israeli sources said the teenager was armed and was shot inside Israeli-held lines. The Shebaa Farms area lies at the borders of Lebanon, Syria and Israel. Israel has occupied it since taking it from Syria in the six-day war of 1967. The UN has ruled that the land belonged to Syria, but a majority of Lebanese claim it as their own, including Hezbollah, who use Israel's occupation of the area as the logic behind their maintenance of armed militia. Among the farming community of Shebaa, who have seen their livelihoods stripped by the Israeli occupation of land on which they once grew olives in abundance, there was a mood of anger at the UN and defiance against Israel. "Let Israel know that if they kill any one of us, the resistance is ready," said Rehayel's father, Yousef, who said he had discovered his son's body just 25 yards from a UN observation post inside Lebanon, but had not received assistance from the UN forces. Mohammed Atwe, a farmer from Shebaa, pledged to avenge the killing: "At the beginning our resistance was based on words. Now we want to take up arms. There are no blue lines on this land. It is all Lebanese land."